Monday, September 26, 2011

Herman Cain and the Federal Reserve:





Herman Cain and the Federal Reserve:

By: Aaron Reale of Either Learn or Leave

 

“[Back] Then, we didn’t have a 14 Trillion Dollar National debt that we were trying to pay off with the Federal Reserve printing money to buy our own debt, that’s like incest! We never even dreamed of that.” ~ Herman Cain

Recently there has been a video circulating around the internet (mostly to Ron Paul fans) entitled “Herman Cain says: “No Need To Audit the Federal Reserve” WTF!” Because of this video’s title, some people have gone into it with preconceived and fallacious ideas about what Herman Cain actually believes. Reading some of the comments on Cain videos, and talking to some people (mostly Libertarians) I was amazed at some of the pejorative and hateful vitriol that was being said about Mr. Cain. Here is just a sampling of what I’ve seen:


“Herman Cain is a Globalist!”


“Herman Cain is not an outsider, he is an insider!”


“He is a Liar!” “He is a Fool!” “What a Scumbag” “What an Uncle Tom!”


“One more corporate puppet accounted for” “Screw you Herman Cain!!!!…I guess they already bought you. You make me sick you piece of crap. You sold our country out along with your soul and you’ll pay for it when your time comes.”


“Herman Cain is just backing up his buddies at the FED”

(In regards to him working for the KC FED) “He was on the board of (Expletive) Directors!”


(Authors Note: Many of these messages were followed by Ron Paul 2012 messages… just saying)


It is because of these messages and others like them that I have set out to disprove a false assertion; the assertion that Herman Cain is against auditing the Federal Reserve. I will be using Herman Cain’s own words from said video, as well as four different interviews to prove that this argument against him is baseless and simply untrue.

The first question we must ask (in regards to the “WTF” video) is: “What does the audio actually say?” To answer that question, let’s look at the complete text from the video:


“Here’s what I do know: the Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits its ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re going to learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve. Now I no longer serve on the board of the Federal Reserve, I’m not being defensive of the Federal Reserve, in fact some of the policies, some of the actions of the Federal Reserve today, I don’t agree with! Because the attitude and the non-politicization of the 90’s when I served on it is totally different than what’s going on today. But people who say we ought to audit the Federal Reserve because we don’t know enough about it, well; here’s the advice I’ve given to people who are worried about an audit of the Federal Reserve: Call them up and ask them if you can stop by and have one of their PR people or one of their public relations people explain to you how the Federal Reserve operates. I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it. There is no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge, and I tell people; you know we got 12 Federal Reserve banks, find out which district you are in, call them up and go from there. We don’t need to waste money with another commission or an audit that’s not necessary. Because folks, we’ve got a lot of other problems we need to worry about.”


Now my question is how anyone can get from that audio/text that Herman Cain is against auditing the Federal Reserve? The fact is that he never once said he was against it, he said he didn’t think it would do that much good. Now we must ask ourselves, why would he have that opinion? 

His first reason is that:


“The Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re going to learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve.”

So his first point of reasoning is that he doesn’t think we would learn much from an audit of the Federal Reserve, especially when the Fed has so many Internal Audits. Let’s move on to his second point of contention, which is:


“There is no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge.”


Okay simple enough, as far as he knows there are no secretive policies or conspiracies going on at the Federal Reserve. He is not saying there definitely isn’t, but to the best of his knowledge, he doesn’t think there are.


So the next question we must ask is: What is the purpose of an audit? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary an Audit is: “A formal examination of an organization’s or individual’s accounts or financial situation.” In layman’s terms, an audit is done in order to find out more about the party being audited, in this case financially.  Mr. Cain pinpoints the reasoning of an audit and responds to it this way:


“But people who say we ought to audit the Federal Reserve because we don’t know enough about it, well; here’s the advice I’ve given to people who are worried about an audit of the Federal Reserve: Call them up and ask them if you can stop by and have one of their PR people or one of their public relations people explain to you how the Federal Reserve operates. I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it… you know we got 12 Federal Reserve banks, find out which district you are in, call them up and go from there.”



Herman Cain is not saying he is against an audit, all he is saying is before you call for an audit, do all the research you can. You may think that an audit is absolutely necessary, and that is fine, but why is it so outrages that Cain is asking us to first talk to the Federal Reserve itself, to find out what it does? He actually makes a lot of sense, talk to the Fed, and if you are then not completely satisfied, then go ahead and call for an audit, but exhaust all your research assets first. Because, if there is nothing nefarious happening, then you just:


“Waste money with another commission or an audit that’s not necessary.”


Now it’s ok if you disagree with Cain about an audit being a waste of time and money, but you do have to admit there is absolutely nothing outrages about Cain asking us to do full research before calling for an audit. We must also recognize that there isn’t one shred of evidence in this video that supports the notion that Herman Cain is against auditing the Federal Reserve.  


There are two specific attacks on Cain that have come out of this video, which try to give external reasons on why Cain would say these things. 

Those arguments (mentioned before) are:


“Herman Cain is just backing up his buddies at the FED”  


“Of Course he’d say that, He was on the board of (Expletive) Directors!”


Mr. Cain himself actually dispels these attacks during the clip that caused all the controversy (he also does so in other interviews which will be addressed later):


“I’m not being defensive of the Federal Reserve, in fact some of the policies, some of the actions of the Federal Reserve today, I don’t agree with! Because the attitude and the non-politicization of the 90’s when I served on it is totally different than what’s going on today.”


I find it funny that people accuse him of being a Federal Reserve/ Big Banker hack when he himself (before anybody ever attacked him for it) unabashedly said that he was not sticking up for the Federal Reserve because he does not agree with some of the things they are currently doing (politicizing their actions and attitude). As well as the fact that when he was working there, the attitude and actions of the Fed were completely different from what is happening now (some simple research can affirm this).


Now that it has been made clear that the attacks on Cain in regards to this video are baseless, let’s move ahead to some other interviews with Cain that further dispels the attacks. The following is taken from an interview of Herman Cain’s by a radio host named Rusty Humphries;


“The Federal Reserve at different times in its history did what it was supposed to do better than others. I don’t agree with many of the policies of the Federal Reserve we have today. When I was on the board of the Federal Reserve and Allen Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve We didn’t dream of doing some of the things they are doing today. Then, we didn’t have a 14 Trillion Dollar National debt that we were trying to pay off with the Federal Reserve printing money to buy our own debt, that’s like incest! We never even dreamed of that. Because the debt wasn’t as big as it was…”


Right away Mr. Cain dispels the attack that he is just sticking up for the Fed, as he invited us to revisit some not-so-distant history. To those who think he is “backing up his buddies at the Fed” he responds with:


“I don’t agree with many of the policies of the Federal Reserve we have today. When I was on the board of the Federal Reserve and Allen Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve We didn’t dream of doing some of the things they are doing today.”

He then explains some history of how the Fed worked in 1996 (when he worked there), by telling us what they did not even dream about doing:


“Then, we didn’t have a 14 Trillion Dollar National debt that we were trying to pay off   with the Federal Reserve printing money to buy our own debt, that’s like incest! We never even dreamed of that.”


A simple question comes to my mind after reading this; Would someone who is really for what the Fed is currently doing, or at least backing them up in their actions go so far as to compare it to incest? I don’t think so; the only person who would go so far in comparison is someone who means what he says.


We next turn to an interview that Herman Cain did with Glenn Beck;



Cain: “Yes, I was proud of the work of serving on that board for the following reasons. That Federal Reserve didn’t do any of the stuff that this Federal Reserve is doing. Secondly, Alan Greenspan never allowed the fed to become politicized, and the other difference between today and then is that we didn’t have this $14 trillion debt to deal with and as a result, they didn’t have to deflate or inflate our currency the way this Federal Reserve board is doing it.  So yes, I did serve on the board.”


Glenn:   “Are you for or against auditing the Fed?”


Cain: “I do not object to auditing the Fed, I absolutely do not object to auditing the Fed, what I said was: it’s not an issue that I’m going to carry the water for, but I would not object to it. It’s just not an issue that I want to take leadership on.”


Glenn:   “How Come?”


Cain: “Cause, I don’t think they are going to find anything to be perfectly honest, based upon what I know about the Fed. Secondly they have internal controls out of the wazoo. I saw them; I was there on the board and got familiar with some of them. So this is why I’d rather focus on what do we need to do to truly boost this economic growth.”


That exchange is all pretty straight forward, when Mr. Cain was on the Board of Directors for the Kansas City Federal Reserve, they didn’t do nor did they think about doing what the current Federal Reserve is doing. And when asked straight forward if he was against auditing the Federal Reserve, Mr. Cain said he would not object to it, but he does not feel we will learn much from it.

There are two more short interviews that further prove that Herman Cain is not against auditing the Fed, the first coming from John Hawkins:


Q: What about the FED?"


Cain: Auditing the FED isn’t that important to me, but I don’t object to it….. I’m not a fan of the Fed; I just think we need some mechanism to do it.”


Again this answer is pretty self explanatory, so let’s move on to the final interview, this one on television, again with Glenn Back:


Glenn: Do you think the FED should be audited?”


Cain: Yes, (but) it’s not going to be an issue I’m going to take leadership on.”


All you have to do is look at what Herman Cain actually says to realize these attacks against him are baseless, however, let me quote Steve Foley of http://citizens4cain.com:


“Some say, Cain is naive about asking the Fed directly what they are up-to, and on the face of it, one would think “yeah-right they’re not going to give you a straight answer”… to this I say, have you asked for a tour of your district Fed Office and an explanation of what they do and how they do it? Or is it easier just to believe the whole world is after you? I’m not saying your wrong but if you haven’t at least done the first step of due diligence your argument is weak, at best.


Others say, if the Fed lies to the House and Senate about what it’s up-to, “you know they won’t tell you the truth if you ask”… then Cain is right again and another audit of the Fed will yield zero results! 


Herman Cain doesn’t believe you’re foolish for wanting to know what the fed is up-to — he’s saying you’re asking the wrong question(s)


An Audit of the Fed doesn’t get to your end goal… framing the debate to ask why the Fed is needed at all is what your focus should be! Plus, knee-jerk decisions about who to support for president shouldn’t be decided by a single issue nor should it hinge on whether or not that candidate supports an auditing of the Federal Reserve! Ask the right questions!”

Cain annoyed by ‘stupid’ questions from Ron Paul supporters



Sources:

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhen9QiYai8 (No Need To Audit)

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI_oocjB3A8&feature=player_embedded (Rusty Humphries)

(3) http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/05/24/glenn-interviews-herman-cain/ (Beck Radio)

(4) http://rightwingnews.com/teleconferences/a-teleconference-with-herman-cain/ (John Hawkins)

(5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRTS6v7GzhE (Beck TV)

(6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caeNXivEGEg&feature=related (Steve Foley)

(7) http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tppradio/2011/06/11/the-brazen-3-show (Unused “Brazen 3 Interview)





 

 

 

 

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